Arequipa y mi familia

Arequipa is the second biggest city in Peru after Lima. In the background of Arequipa are some mountains, but the most spectacular is El Misti, an active volcano. In addition, there is a beautiful river running through the city. It’s fast, kind of clean looking, with boulders and rapids. It’s quite a beautiful sight.

Arequipa doesn’t have a ton of touristy stuff to do. It’s mostly just a regular city, where local people live, work, and play. This is a more preferable place to study and live with a family, then say Cusco, because it’s less touristy. This means that, among other things: there are fewer people begging you to buy their paintings and woven goods (Amiga, comprame algo. Friend, buy something from me), fewer British pubs (I guess the whole world likes a British pub) and it is less expensive in general.

I’m staying with a family at a house in a neighborhood called Umacollo, which is just outside the centro, near the Universidad Católica. The family I’m staying with is fabulous, mostly because the mom is AMAZING. Her name is Tula and she’s silly and wonderful and easy to understand. Both parents are dentists. They have two children, 23-year-old Daniel who is an industrial engineer and is also in a band (they practice their Latin/Funk/Rock in the basement) and 21-year-old Claudia, who is studying at the university. On top of that, there are two other Peruvian students living there, Indira and Ana Cecilia. It appears that it’s quite normal for students to live with local families, and not stay in dorms. In fact, I’m not even sure there ARE dorms. On top of this, students that don’t want to eat on the street or in the school cafeteria (IF there is one) make arrangements to eat lunch at our house also. When I come home from class at 1 o’clock, there are 5 or 6 people eating, and it’s grand! Tula is an excellent cook and treats us well. We have two courses, always. First, a soup (It’s not a meal here without soup, which is lovely!), and then a big plate of local cuisine. It’s wonderful and takes the guesswork out of having to feed myself because eating out for every meal is exhausting.